counteremotion

counteremotion

English

Etymology

From counter- +‎ emotion.

Noun

counteremotion (plural counteremotions)

1. An emotion which acts in contrast or opposition to another emotion.
   • 1996, Dolf Zillmann, "Sequential Dependencies in Emotional Experience and Behavior", in Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, p. 265:

     The counteremotion of anger is serenity, that of fear relaxation.

   • 2009, Sebastian Faulks, A Week in December:

     He began to feel [...] the elation of money coming his way, the self-congratulation that followed – because the gain was all down to his inspired decisions — and then the almost equal counteremotion of sickening anxiety: a fear that there was some aspect of the trade he hadn't covered, some twist that even he had not foreseen.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 670:

     An aggressor experiences a revulsion to hurting his victim, but the discomfort cannot last forever, and eventually a reassuring, energizing counteremotion resets his equilibrium to neutral.